Obama Says Turkey Should Be Full Member of Europe

Strong relationship with Napolitano and Berlusconi. Italy outstanding in Afghanistan

“Italy is part of me” said Barack Obama as he welcomed me to the Oval Office. The president of the United States looked comfortable and relaxed at the start of this exclusive interview with the Corriere della Sera. Obama tackled big issues, like the war in Afghanistan, calling Italy’s contribution to the alliance effort “outstanding”. He pointed out that summer 2011 will not be the start of a hurried American withdrawal. It will be the moment when “we begin to see Afghan troops and police taking over from us”. He discussed the risk of losing Turkey, noting that Europe’s reluctance to include Ankara as a full member could push the Turkish people to “look elsewhere”. He praised Berlusconi and Napolitano, saying Italy was “lucky to have an excellent premier and an excellent president”. But he also talked about less serious matters, admitting to a passion for Dante, the films of Fellini, Antonioni and De Sica, and the light of Tuscany.

The president of the United States is standing when he greets me in the Oval Office antechamber. He has just concluded a meeting with his vice-president, Joseph Biden. I have been waiting my turn in the room outside the office of James Jones, the national security adviser. On the sofa opposite, waiting to see Mr Jones, is Senator George Mitchell, the White House’s special envoy for the Middle East. What is most striking about the West Wing, the inner sanctum of America’s power, is how small it is. Everything is squeezed into just a few square metres. President Obama is wearing a blue suit and a sky blue shirt. His tie is pale green with a pattern of small dark triangles. His shoes and socks are black. He invites me to sit on the sofa and takes the chair on the left of the fireplace. Behind him are the two bronze busts of Lincoln and Luther King that replaced the bust of Churchill, returned to the United Kingdom in January 2009 after being on extended loan throughout the Bush era. In the middle of the wall hangs a portrait of George Washington. Obama speaks in his trademark soft baritone. Also present at the interview are Ben Rhodes, Obama’s foreign policy adviser and speechwriter, and Mike Hammer, spokesman for the Security Council.

With more than a hint of emotion in my voice, I begin: “Mr President, the United States and its allies are fighting a hard and bloody war in Afghanistan. Italy has contributed 3,000 troops. Can we still win and get out in a year? What message do you have for people in Europe watching their young men and women die alongside America’s young men and women, with no tangible results for now?” Obama reflects: “First of all, I want to say how personally grateful I am for the Italian contribution in Afghanistan. The sacrifices of Italian men and women in uniform have been outstanding. Prime Minister Berlusconi has been a constant, strong ally. Italy is helping us with training as well as on the battlefield where the Carabinieri, for example, have been very useful. I hold the sacrifices of the Italian people in the highest consideration. Having said that, this is a difficult issue in a difficult region. There are no easy solutions. If there were, we wouldn’t be out there. The fact is that Afghanistan was used as a base for terrorist activities directed against all of us. The region on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border continues to be a launchpad for terror groups. Our presence there has crippled Al Qaeda, so that it is no longer capable of launching large-scale attacks the way it used to. We have still got a lot of work to do to stabilise the country and through that, let me add, to stabilise Pakistan. There’s work to be done. What I have told the American people, and the peoples of our allied countries, is that we are implementing a strategy that involves a surge of troops in the field to weaken the return of the Taliban, and greater commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan’s military and security structure. We will review the situation at the end of the year to establish whether the strategy has been effective. By the middle of next year, we will start the drawdown but that does not mean our presence will suddenly disappear. We will start to see Afghan troops and police taking our place so there will be a gradual reduction of our presence, offset by greater commitment from the Afghans. It will be hard, it will be difficult, but I think it is possible. Especially if we consider that the Taliban do not have the support of the Afghan people. This is not an insurrection that has popular support. People over there still remember when the Taliban were in power and they don’t like it. But the terrain is hard. The country is poor. The government still has a limited, but growing, reach. That’s why we have to win not just on the military level. We also need to accompany progress in the field with training, economic development and the kind of effort where the Italian contribution is very important and for which we are grateful”.

The next topic is Turkey, where recent foreign policy developments, above all the UN vote against sanctions for Iran and the cooling of relations with Israel, have caused concern in the United States and Europe. There has even been talk of “losing Turkey”. Do you, Mr President, think that the refusal or reluctance of the European Union to give Ankara full membership of its institutions has had an impact? What could the United States and Europe do to recommit Turkey to a more pro-Western stance? Obama starts with a broad view, saying that Turkey is a “county of enormous strategic importance that has always been a crossroads of East and West. Turkey is a NATO ally and its economy is booming. The fact that it is both a democracy and a country with a Muslim majority makes it a critically important model for other Muslim countries in the region. For these reasons, we believe it is important to cultivate strong relations with Ankara. And it is also why, even though we are not members of the EU, we have always expressed the opinion that it would be wise to accept Turkey into the Union. I realise that this raises strong feelings in Europe, nor do I think that Europe’s slow pace or reluctance is the only or the principal factor behind some of the changes we have observed recently in Turkey’s orientation. In my view, what we are seeing is democratic confrontation inside Turkey. But it is inevitably destined to impact on the way Turkish people see Europe. If they do not feel part of the European family, then obviously they’re going to look elsewhere for alliances and affiliations. Some of the things we have seen, such as the attempt to mediate an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue, have been unfortunate. I believe they were motivated by the fact that Turkey has a long border with Iran and does not want any conflicts in the area. Muscle-flexing may also have come into it, as it does with Brazil, which sees itself as an emerging power. What we can do with Ankara is to continue to engage, and to point out the benefits of integration with the West while respecting, not acting out of fear of, Turkey’s specific nature as a great Muslim democracy. It is potentially very good for us if they embody a kind of Islam that respects universal rights and the secularity of the state, and can have a positive influence on the Muslim world”.

My fifteen minutes are running out. I try to strike a lighter note, which the president picks up. What relationship do you have with Italian culture. Is there any writer, artist or film director who influenced you? Obama smiles a little dreamily. For an instant, he drifts away on a wave of memories. “Well, when I was young, I loved Italian movies: Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica. When it comes to literature, I prefer the classics, especially Dante. Let’s not even talk about the food. But I still think the region around Florence is the one I like best. The light in Tuscany is special. I honestly don’t know who couldn’t like Italy, or hasn’t been influenced by Italian culture. I definitely consider Italy to be part of me. I’ll tell you something else. It was way the favourite place of my daughters on the trip to Europe. They came back totally in love with Rome and they keep asking me when we are going back”.

Is Obama’s personal relationship with Italian president Giorgio Napolitano as special as it is reported to be? “I find him a very gracious person. I have to say that I have also developed a very strong relationship with Prime Minister Berlusconi. It’s always a pleasure to meet him. We laugh, we joke and we do serious, concrete stuff. Prime Minister Berlusconi has been a great friend of the United States and of mine. I met President Napolitano in Rome and recently here in Washington. His vision of a strong Europe completely coincides with mine. He places exactly the same importance on transatlantic relations as I do. In that sense, Italy is fortunate to have an excellent prime minister and an excellent president”.

The interview is over but I manage to show Obama a page of his book, My Father’s Dreams, where he describes travelling through Europe on his way to Kenya, his walks in the Jardins du Luxembourg, his strolls in Plaza Mayor and sunset over the Palatine in Rome, which evokes eternity. But he concludes: “It was not mine”. Is that still so? Sometimes it seems that the place of his dreams is not so much Europe as the Pacific, where he grew up. Obama disagrees. “The context of the phrase is that when I was a young man, I was trying to make sense of my identity and answer the question of who I truly was. The journey to Africa filled my emptiness in a way Europe could not because there I was a tourist. In Kenya, I was trying to find out who the father I had never really known was. But in terms of influence on my life, Europe is probably stronger than anything else because I am American and American culture, which is obviously a mixture of various cultures, has its strongest element in Europe. In that sense, during the trip being in Europe wasn’t very different from being in the United States. I feel very comfortable in Europe. Everything feels familiar in a way that I cannot say is true when I travel to Japan or China, despite having been born and grown up in Hawaii, where Asian influence is very strong. The fact is that the United States will always have a unique bond with Europe, which as an American I share to the full”.